There has been buzz that Utah Jazz free agent Paul Millsap is the top off-season target of Danny Ainge and the Celtics. They certainly need help along the front line and Millsap would fit in that way. It’s just that the money thing makes it far more complex.

But apparently Ainge was trying to land him at the trade deadline. And if not Millsap, then maybe to land the other Jazz free agent Al Jefferson (a former Celtic).

So tweets Comcast Sportsnet New England’s Greg Dickerson.

Celtics tried to make a deal for millsap and or big Al at the trade deadline. Couldn't make things work w jazz though

Not sure how close to reality that was because it’s hard to see a deal Utah would want, unless you are willing to put Rajon Rondo in it (and you shouldn’t).

The Celtics postseason moves still hinge on the decision of Kevin Garnett — if he comes back it’s likely they bring Paul Pierce back and Boston makes one more run with them. And Jackie MacMullan of ESPN said the other day she hears KG is leaning toward returning.

If that happens the Celtics are too far over the cap to just sign Millsap, Jefferson or any other name free agent. They in theory could do a sign and trade that brings back less money, but do you really think after KG came back Ainge would turn around and do a trade that sent Pierce or Rondo to Utah? Do you think Utah would do a sign-and-trade for Jeff Green, and Millsap would take a paycut to make that happen? No.

Maybe Jefferson makes more sense that way, but not much. And Utah reportedly wants to keep one of them, maybe Jefferson.

Kurt Helin Feb 6, 2013, 3:28 PM EDT15 CommentsAPIt is widely expected the Utah Jazz are going to trade one of their two big men before the trade deadline —Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap are both in the last year of their contracts and they are not both coming back.

bad teams.
all the good teams are capped out, everyone is talking garbage
about the Knicks when all playoff teams are pretty much screwed
cap wise, that’s why they get to the playoffs and if you don’t it is
because you suck and you lose your players like the Cavs with LeBron.

It also doesn’t help that the stars want to only play with other stars. Bosh, Wade, and Lebron all go to one team that offseason. Normally, those 3 players would have went to 3 different teams creating more equality in the league.

I think a lot of pundits who thrive on page hits had the lakers there, but most reasonable people saw an old team with a very limited bench. The lakers were all hype. Nash’s potential benefit was negated by Kobe’s need to have the ball in his hands at all times and Howard was hurt along with many of the other older players. Just wasn’t going to happen.

Tell me about it.. U knew the top 4 and future hall of famers would have injury trouble all year? Wow. U have amazing hindsight. U knew they would change coaches? But still when they got remotely healthy, they were one of the top teams in the nba. With that horrible start, how do u think they made the playoffs?

before the season, ppl picked lakers/okc in the conference finals. sa/memphis was not a guess many sane people made. east was supposed to be wide open with miami and maybe a recovered DRose, Indiana with a healthy Granger, Boston for a last hurrah with a healthy rondo/jeff green. dont think it really went as predicted. i love the NBA and next time u bash it, give me a better reason. thanks.

I’ll give you the west. I would of personally said SA or OKC to come out of the west, but I can see you saying OKC and LA

The East? No way. Everyone knew the east was Miami, with Indiana and NY fighting for the right to lose to the in the finals. That’s exactly what happened

I do agree that the NBA is a ridiculously predictable, but only partially because “stars” want to play together. I think it is more because they get “star treatment”, which means you can’t win without one. The NBA decided decades ago that they wanted to be a league about the individual, marketable player, and not the teams

@somekat
You are right. This went down after the disaster of the 70’s when TV ratings hit all time lows and the “stars ” were on the Police Blotter every week.Bird and Magic both captained teams with many stars in an expanded league(see diluted talent pool ) and it was the only way for the NBA to rebuild their TV rating and refill empty areas.Stern had the good sense to bring in European players with skills and grow the game outside the US.

Can’t understand why the Celtics would want Jefferson. He’s soft on defense and undersized. Now David West, there’s a Celtic.

From John Krolik in 2011:
“…no team has ever been able to play decent defense while starting Al Jefferson, and that hasn’t changed now that Jefferson is in Utah. Starting in the 06-07 season, when Jefferson first became a starter for the Celtics, here are the number of points per 100 possessions Jefferson’s teams have given up when he was on/off the floor: